Backed by some totally overdone, bombastic orchestral music, the new Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood trailer gives you handy combat advice such as, “Make them feel your POW moves.” Huh? The cutesy graphics don’t go with the more serious soundtrack at all, so the whole thing comes off as a bit of a marketing misfire.

What’s useful in this trailer is the glimpse at the combat mechanics, which thank god, aren’t the same old menu-saturated affairs that we’ve all seen before (unless they’re hiding that part from us). Instead there is an at least sem-realtime engine where you carry out special attacks by completing Ouendan-like minigames with the stylus, tapping and dragging.

Because of the Bioware pedigree, this is one Sonic game I haven’t completely lost hope for yet. We’ll see the finished product soon enough though, as it’s slated for release some time in September for the DS.

[Gamekyo]

As if we needed any more wacky, alternate-universe Sonic spinoff games. Nintendo Power reports that the game is coming out for the Wii in Spring of 2009. Apparently the game’s plot is based on Medieval lore, and Sonic’s goal “is to become a knight.” Oh, brother.

To make matters worse, European Marketing Director, Gary Knight said that this will be the beginning of a “Storybook” series of Sonic games. This just means that our spiky blue friend will descend even further into the territory of overambitious video game clusterfucks. How long can this keep going on?

[Siliconera]

While the game’s plot is a bit unclear right now, it’s been revealed that Eggman captures sonic and turns him into a “werehog” (perhaps he’s being experimented on in this now-famous and heavily macro’d image?). Turns out Sonic will assume this alternate form at nightfall, and gains (as well as loses) some abilities.

As the “Werehog,” Sonic is slower, but is much stronger and has Dhalsim-esque (or Ristar-like, depending on your preference) arms. In this form you’ll be breaking doors, climbing, and using your elongated limbs to save your from near-death falls. The mechanic seems a bit unnecessary in a game that wants to focus on speed and simplicity (as are those that have plagued every Sonic game from Adventure onwards) but there’s always hope that this will be the one (that doesn’t suck).

[MTV Multiplayer]

It seems the intent of this trailer is to remind us that this is a Sonic Team game. There’s no new gameplay footage, but it seems to be setting a tone much different from previous trailers.

Sonic Unleashed will be released for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PlayStation 2, and Wii in November.

In this “Europe” trailer we see more gameplay, and get to see how gigantic the new stages really are. You’ll be springing up far above the cityscape, able to see buildings for miles in any direction. Despite the apparent size, the level flow still looks quite linear, with some side-scrolling sections and other over-the-shoulder bits more reminiscent of the Crash series.

There’s a lot of speculation over how much freedom over the gameplay you’ll have. Is it a series of nearly automated quicktime-event-fueled rollercoasters, or a mindbogglingly difficult game where once false move can mean instant death? It’s hard to say what the balance will be, but fans are once again clamoring to praise this game as the rebirth of Soinc. We’ll find out how well it fares “late 2008.”

[Destructoid]

Last weekend, on Sunday the 9th of September, marked the eighth birthday of one of the most underrated and underappreciated console to grace the American market. In a nutshell, it ran on 128-bit hardware, had a load of A-list titles, and was just awesome to play. But because of poor marketing decisions, it went into a downward spiral of low sales figure. To say it wasn’t commercially successful was an understatement. Ironically, Peter Moore, former Xbox 360 PR mogul, used to helm the marketing side of this console. Perhaps his venture in Sega was a lifelong lesson on how he should improve his marketing and PR skills before working for Microsoft.

Moving on, I would like to point out the many landmarks the Dreamcast created, both the good, the bad, and the obligatory “WTFs”.
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Those of you that can remember back to the golden yester-years of gaming, back when Mortal Kombat had green blood and Mario had made his first RPG. You can surely remember the long-standing rivalry between Sega and its hedgehog, Sonic, and Nintendo’s good old Italian plumber, Mario. Now, with Sega becoming a software-only company, they’ve apparently put their old differences aside to make a single game where both plumber and hyper-sonic hedgehog, can live in peace. The game, Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games, is no doubt inspired by the upcoming Beijing Olympic Games, and in fact has games associated directly with said Olympics. This could end up being one of the most popular games of all time, combining the lovable characters of Mario and Sonic, plus all their supporting cast, and throwing them into a Wii Sports-like environment could spell BIG bucks for both companies

Here’s hoping there’s an Olympic boxing game, so we can finally pit the two greatest rivals against each other in a huge punch-fest. Hey, it may not be a Mugen, but it sure would be fun.

[Playfuls]

It’s Retro Video Time! Those small MB-sized videogames games that always left something in your heart when you played them as a kid, and thought they were the best thing ever after Sliced Bread. . . And that are still cool today!

The one that I want to open this section with is Sonic. That super saiyan hedgehog that made a lot of us AWE with not just his 1st, but his 2nd transformation; he had his own comic-book and I still have some old old oooold volumes (which I might post about later, who knows?).

Now this scene is and will be one, if not THE favorite [Hero x Villain] moment of all console games. It has an excellent scenario (OUTER SPACE, Dammit!), Great Music (I still want this song as Power Metal . . .anyone?), Dr. Robotnik, a fearful Super-Scientist type Villain, and Sonic, our hero. . . who transforms to HYPER Sonic after getting the greatest challenge in the game: Getting the 7 Chaos Emeralds And the 7 [new]Chaos Diamonds.

So without further ado. . .The Scene.

I wonder if Akira Toriyama made a complaint about Sonic’s Super-Saiyan-ness. . .

Apparently Sega thought that Wild Fire was too cool a name to waste on a game people claim will return Sonic to its former fame. What is a company to do when facing such a problem? Change the name to something that resembles a Harry Potter book.

Sonic and the Secret Rings enters the stage, and a thousand voices start ranting that it sounds kiddie. Its still going to be an awesome game, but seriously, whats next? Sonic and the Chamber of Sneakers?

[1up]